WASHINGTON NEWS

FSIS claims downward E. coli trend
On Sept. 17, the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) released data showing a drop in the number of E. coli O157:H7 positive samples in ground beef collected to date in 2003 compared with past years. Of the samples collected and analyzed through Aug. 31, 0.32% tested positive for E. coli O157:H7, down from 0.78 in 2002 and 0.84 in 2001. In 2000, after FSIS began using a much more sensitive E. coli O157:H7 test, 0.86% of samples …